Newcastle United travel to Stoke Cityon Wednesday night facing up to life without Steven Taylor and Yohan Cabaye until February.

The central defender Taylor has been ruled out for six to eight weeks with the hamstring injury he suffered at Southampton on Sunday, while Cabaye is due to have groin surgery for a second time in the next 24 hours, which will keep him out him for up to eight weeks.

The Newcastle manager, Alan Pardew, is also without the midfielders Hatem Ben Arfa (hamstring) and Gabriel Obertan (toe) as well as the striker Shola Ameobi (groin), although his central defender and captain Fabricio Coloccini is available after serving a three-match ban. Stoke's Michael Owen and Andy Wilkinson are likely to miss Wednesday'sgame. Owen returned to training after a month out with a hamstring injury but Stoke are keen not to push him too hard, while Wilkinson missed Saturday's win over Fulham with a back problem. Both players could well return for Saturday's trip to West Brom, but Marc Wilson (broken leg) and Rory Delap (hernia) are longer-term absentees.